European sites where US nuclear weapons held inadvertently revealed in Nato-linked document -17.07.2019 Nr.192

World European sites where US nuclear weapons held inadvertently revealed in Nato-linked document

Ben Riley-Smith,The Telegraph•July 16, 2019Donald Trump, the US president, has removed America from a treaty that limits the development of intermediate range nuclear weapons – AFPThe European sites where America’s nuclear weapons are stored has been inadvertently revealed in a document published by a Nato-linked body, according to Belgian media reports. The document written by for the Defense and Security Committee of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly made passing reference to the roughly 150 US nuclear weapons being stored in Europe.

“These bombs are stored at six US and European bases – Kleine Brogel in Belgium, Büchel in Germany, Aviano and Ghedi-Torre in Italy, Volkel in The Netherlands, and Incirlik in Turkey,” one line read, according to the Belgian newspaper De Morgen. The reference was reportedly contained in the original version of the document which was published in April but has since been removed in a final version which went out last week.The document, titled “A new era for nuclear deterrence? Modernisation, arms control and allied nuclear forces,” was written by a Canadian senator. A Nato official told The Washington Post the document was not from Nato itself – it was published by the group’s parliamentary assembly and added: “We do not comment on the details of Nato’s nuclear posture.”The presence of US nuclear weapons in Europe acted as a deterrent to the Soviet Union during the Cold War and also meant European countries would not need to develop their own versions.However for years the exact locations of the weapons have been a secret – though experts said their presence was widely known in the international community. The faux pas was picked up by the European press. Dutch broadcaster RTL News ran an article headlined: “Nato reveals the Netherlands’s worst-kept secret.” The reporting from De Morgen read: “Finally in black and white: There are American nuclear weapons in Belgium.”

Trump Renews Attacks Against Dem Congresswomen: ‘Pro-Terrorist,’ ‘Vile’Hayley MillerHuffPost•July 16, 2019 Trump’s Racist Attack President Donald Trump on Tuesday continued his hate-filled attacks on a group of Democratic congresswomen of color, falsely accusing them of being “pro-terrorist” and “anti-USA.”Trump, who on Sunday launched his racist tirade, fired off a series of fresh tweets apparently aimed at freshman Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (N.Y.), Ayanna Pressley (Mass.), Ilhan Omar (Minn.) and Rashida Tlaib (Mich.). Omar and Tlaib last year became the first Muslim women elected to Congress.″The Democratic Congresswomen have been spewing some of the most vile, hateful, and disgusting things ever said by a politician in the House or Senate,” wrote Trump, who also has falsely accused former President Barack Obama of founding the so-called Islamic State and who propelled the racist birther movement against him.“Horrible, anti-Israel, anti-USA, pro-terrorist & public … shouting of the F…word, among many other terrible things,” the president continued. “Why isn’t the House voting to rebuke the filthy and hate laced things they have said?”Donald J. Trump@realDonaldTrump The Democrat Congresswomen have been spewing some of the most vile, hateful, and disgusting things ever said by a politician in the House or Senate, & yet they get a free pass and a big embrace from the Democrat Party. Horrible anti-Israel, anti-USA, pro-terrorist & public…..2:20 PM – Jul 16, 2019Donald J. Trump@realDonaldTrump The Democrat Congresswomen have been spewing some of the most vile, hateful, and disgusting things ever said by a politician in the House or Senate, & yet they get a free pass and a big embrace from the Democrat Party. Horrible anti-Israel, anti-USA, pro-terrorist & public…..Donald J. Trump@realDonaldTrump…..shouting of the F…word, among many other terrible things, and the petrified Dems run for the hills. Why isn’t the House voting to rebuke the filthy and hate laced things they have said? Because they are the Radical Left, and the Democrats are afraid to take them on. Sad!2:20 PM – Jul 16, 2019Ocasio-Cortez, Pressley, Omar and Tlaib ― known as “the Squad” on Capitol Hill ― have made headlines in recent months for butting heads with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), calling for Trump’s impeachment, and questioning America’s relationship with Israel.Trump unleashed a racist rant against the lawmakers on Sunday, telling them to “go back” to other countries. Omar, who is black, immigrated to the U.S. from Somalia with her family in 1995. Pressley, who is black; Ocasio-Cortez, who is Latina; and Tlaib, who is Palestinian-American, were born in the U.S.Despite a storm of condemnation, Trump has stood by his “go back” tweets, repeatedly calling on those who are unhappy in the U.S. to “leave.”“I don’t have a Racist bone in my body!” he tweeted Tuesday.“Nancy Pelosi tried to push them away, but now they are forever wedded to the Democrat Party,” he wrote of his targets. “See you in 2020!”Democrats were quick to deride the tweets as racist and unacceptable. Congressional Republicans have been mostly silent about the president’s bigoted remarks, save for a few exceptions.Though Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and other Trump loyalists have steadfastly denied that the tweets were racist, some GOP lawmakers have issued a rare rebuke of the president. Asked Monday whether she believes Trump’s “go back” comments were racist, Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) said yes.“The Squad” held a press conference Monday to address Trump’s remarks, calling his “go back” home tweet “blatantly racist” and “the agenda of white nationalists.” “We love all people in this country, and that’s why we believe health care is a human right,” Ocasio-Cortez said Monday. “We love all children in this country, and because we do, that’s why we fight for all children through college.”From left, Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., respond to remarks by President Donald Trump after his call for the four Democratic congresswomen to go back to their „broken” countries. (Photo: ASSOCIATED PRESS)Trump’s vitriolic tweets on Tuesday feigning outrage over what he claimed were “vile” and “disgusting” comments drew attention to other offensive remarks he has made in recent years.“Hey Mr. President, remember when you bragged about sexually assaulting women, talking about feeling their breasts and genitals, because ‘when you’re a star they let you do it?’” Ocasio-Cortez fired back on Twitter, referring to the infamous “Access Hollywood” tape that prompted bipartisan backlash against him ahead of the 2016 election.Trump, who has been accused of sexual assault by multiple women, including most recently author E. Jean Carroll, claimed his remarks bragging about groping women were simply “locker room talk.”Love HuffPost? Become a founding member of HuffPost Plus today.Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez@AOC Hey Mr. President, remember when you bragged about sexually assaulting women, talking about feeling their breasts and genitals, because “when you’re a star they let you do it?”And then you imposed DOE policies to make it harder for sexual assault survivors to report assault? https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/1151089268535767042 …Donald J. Trump@realDonaldTrumpThe Democrat Congresswomen have been spewing some of the most vile, hateful, and disgusting things ever said by a politician in the House or Senate, & yet they get a free pass and a big embrace from the Democrat Party. Horrible anti-Israel, anti-USA, pro-terrorist & public…..3:32 PM – Jul 16, 2019Trump on Tuesday claimed the progressive lawmakers used “filthy” language, referencing a comment made by Tlaib in January in which she called Trump “a motherfucker.” Republicans at the time issued statements condemning Tlaib’s choice of words, and she later apologized for “the distraction” her comment caused.Yet Republicans have been largely mum when it comes to the president’s use of expletives and threatening language, including his praise for a GOP lawmaker who assaulted a reporter.At a rally in May, Trump threw out the words “ass” and “bullshit.” Earlier that month, his public remarks included the words, “hell,” “damn” and “crap,” reported The New York Times. Members of his party didn’t appear to care publicly.“No one has debased the civil discourse in this country more than President Trump, and the president really does set the tone in the country,” Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) told the Times. “We see it reflected in our offices by the hateful, belligerent, obscene and violent calls that we get now that we didn’t used to get.”This article has been updated to include additional tweets from Trump.This article originally appeared on HuffPost.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — A half-century ago, in the middle of a mean year of war, famine, violence in the streets and the widening of the generation gap, men from planet Earth stepped onto another world for the first time, uniting people around the globe in a way not seen before or since.

Hundreds of millions tuned in to radios or watched the grainy black-and-white images on TV as Apollo 11’s Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin set foot on the moon on July 20, 1969, in one of humanity’s most glorious technological achievements. Police around the world reported crime came to a near halt that midsummer Sunday night.

Astronaut Michael Collins, who orbited the moon alone in the mother ship while Armstrong proclaimed for the ages, “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind,” was struck by the banding together of Earth’s inhabitants.

Apollo 11 commander Neil Armstrong runs through final notes before the launch of the Apollo/Saturn V space vehicle at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on July 16, 1969. (Photo: NASA/Keystone/Getty Images)

This NASA handout shows some of the thousands of people who camped out on beaches and roads adjacent to the Kennedy Space Center to watch the launch of Apollo 11’s Saturn V rocket. (Photo: NASA/AFP/Getty Images)

Kennedy Space Center control room team members rise from their consoles to watch the liftoff of the Apollo 11 mission on July 16, 1969. (Photo: NASA/AFP/Getty Images)

This image taken in the early moments after the launch was taken by a 70 mm ALOTS (Airborne Lightweight Optical Tracking System) tracking camera mounted on an Air Force EC-135N aircraft flying at around 40,000 feet. (Photo: Space Frontiers/Getty Images)

The lunar module of the Apollo 11 space mission, with astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin aboard, is seen in orbit after its liftoff from the moon’s surface on July 21, 1969, as it approaches the command “Columbia” module for a rendezvous. (Photo: NASA/AFP/Getty Images)

One of the first steps taken on the moon, this is an image of Buzz Aldrin’s boot print from the Apollo 11 mission. Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked on the moon on July 20, 1969. (Photo: NASA)

Flight controllers in Mission Control Center celebrate the successful conclusion of the Apollo 11 lunar landing mission on July 24, 1969. (Photo: NASA)

This photograph of astronaut Buzz Aldrin on the lunar surface on July 20, 1969, was taken by Neil Armstrong with a 70 mm lunar surface camera. (Photo: NASA)

Neil Armstrong took this photo of Buzz Aldrin beside an American flag, with the footprints of the astronauts clearly visible on the surface of the moon, on July 20, 1969. While astronauts Armstrong and Aldrin descended in the “Eagle” to explore the Sea of Tranquility region of the moon, command module pilot Michael Collins remained with the “Columbia” in lunar orbit. (Photo: NASA)

NASA and Manned Spacecraft Center officials join the flight controllers in celebrating the conclusion of the Apollo 11 mission on July 24, 1969. (Photo: NASA)

In this photo taken by Neil Armstrong, lunar module pilot Buzz Aldrin had just deployed the mission’s scientific experiments package. (Photo: NASA)

The Apollo 11 crew splashed down at 11:49 a.m. CT on July 24, 1969, about 812 nautical miles southwest of Hawaii and only 12 nautical miles from the USS Hornet, the prime recovery ship for the historic lunar landing mission. (Photo: NASA)

President Richard M. Nixon was in the central Pacific recovery area to welcome the Apollo 11 astronauts aboard the USS Hornet. Seen here in the mobile quarantine facility are, from left, Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins and Buzz Aldrin. (Photo: NASA)

New York City welcomes Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins and Buzz Aldrin in a showering of ticker tape down Broadway and Park Avenue on Aug. 13, 1969, in a parade that, at the time, was called the largest in the city’s history. (Photo: NASA)

New York City welcomes the three Apollo 11 astronauts on Aug. 13, 1969, with a ticker tape parade, which at the time was called the largest in the city’s history. (Photo: NASA)

Trump administration blasts WTO ruling on China

FILE – This June 18, 2019, file photo shows a container ship on the Delaware River in Philadelphia. The Trump administration blasted a World Trade Organization decision Tuesday, July 16, that could let China levy sanctions on the United States. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration blasted a World Trade Organization decision Tuesday that could let China levy sanctions on the United States.

The 2-1 decision by the WTO’s appellate body was actually a mixed verdict in a case that dates back to 2007 and is unrelated to the tariffs the administration has slapped on $250 billion in Chinese goods. In its final decision, the WTO agreed with the U.S. that China lets state-owned enterprises (SOEs) subsidize Chinese firms by providing components at unfairly low costs.

But it said the U.S. wrongly calculated the tariffs imposed to punish China for the subsidies. If the U.S. doesn’t recalculate them, China can retaliate with its own sanctions.

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative said the ruling „undermines WTO rules, making them less effective to counteract Chinese SOE subsidies that are harming U.S. workers and businesses and distorting markets worldwide.”

Separately, the U.S.-China are locked in a yearlong standoff over U.S. allegations that China uses predatory tactics — including outright theft of trade secrets — in an aggressive push to challenge American technological dominance.

Scroll back up to restore default view.United Nations (United States) (AFP) – Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif warned Monday that the United States is „playing with fire,” echoing remarks by President Donald Trump as the two sides are locked in a standoff over Tehran’s nuclear program.The United States quit an international deal aimed at curbing Iran’s nuclear program last year, hitting Tehran with crippling sanctions.Tensions have since soared, with the US calling off air strikes against Iran at the last minute after Tehran downed an American drone, and Washington blaming the Islamic republic for a series of attacks on tanker ships.”I think the United States is playing with fire,” Zarif told NBC News.Iran announced last week that it had enriched uranium past the 3.67 percent limit set by the nuclear deal, and has also surpassed the 300-kilogram cap on enriched uranium reserves.But „it can be reversed within hours,” Zarif told the channel, adding: „We are not about to develop nuclear weapons. Had we wanted to develop nuclear weapons, we would have been able to do it (a) long time ago.”Zarif’s comments came as the United States imposed unusually harsh restrictions on his movements during a visit to the United Nations.Weeks after the United States threatened sanctions against Zarif, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that Washington issued him a visa but forbade him from moving beyond six blocks of Iran’s UN mission in Midtown Manhattan.”US diplomats don’t roam around Tehran, so we don’t see any reason for Iranian diplomats to roam freely around New York City, either,” Pompeo told The Washington Post.

– UN ‘concerns’ -No US diplomats are based in Iran as the two countries broke off relations in the aftermath of the 1979 Islamic revolution that toppled the Western-backed shah.”Foreign Minister Zarif, he uses the freedoms of the United States to come here and spread malign propaganda,” the top US diplomat said.UN spokesman Farhan Haq told reporters that the UN Secretariat was in contact with the US and Iranian missions about Zarif’s travel restrictions and „has conveyed its concerns to the host country.”The United States, as host of the United Nations, has an agreement to issue visas promptly to foreign diplomats on UN business and only rarely declines.Washington generally bars diplomats of hostile nations from traveling outside a 40-kilometer (25-mile) radius of New York’s Columbus Circle.Zarif is scheduled to speak Wednesday at the UN Economic and Social Council, which is holding a high-level meeting on sustainable development.Despite the restrictions, the decision to admit Zarif is the latest sign that Trump’s administration appears to be retreating from its vow to place sanctions on him as part of its „maximum pressure” campaign on Iran.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on June 24 that sanctions against Zarif would come later that week.

Critics questioned the legal rationale for targeting Zarif and noted that sanctions would all but end the possibility of dialogue — which Trump has said is his goal.

Zarif said in an interview with The New York Times he would not be affected by sanctions as he owns no assets outside of Iran.

Man arrested in murder of American biologist in Greece as grisly new details emerge

MORGAN WINSOR, MATT MCGARRY, ENGIN BAS and JULIA JACOBO

Good Morning AmericaJuly 16, 2019Suspect detained in US biologist’s slaying on Crete: Authorities Suspect detained in US biologist’s slaying on Crete: Authorities

Greek police have arrested a suspect in the murder of an American scientist who was found dead in an abandoned World War II bunker on the island of Crete last week.The unnamed suspect is a 27-year-old Greek man who was brought in for questioning Monday and was later arrested after he „confessed his crime,” according to Maj. Gen. Constantinos Lagoudakis, director of Police General Directorate of Crete.”He admitted his guilt and today he will be brought to justice,” Lagoudakis said in a statement Tuesday.The suspect claimed that he spotted U.S. citizen Suzanne Eaton walking toward the Evelpidon monument during the afternoon of July 2 and, „motivated by sexual satisfaction,” hit her twice with his car to stop her, according to Eleni Papathanassiou, a spokeswoman for Crete’s police department.The suspect claimed he put Eaton, who was apparently unconscious, in the trunk of his vehicle and drove to the bunker’s ventilation drain, where he raped her and abandoned her there, Papathanassiou said. He then blocked the entrance to the drain with a wooden palette and drove to a nearby graveyard where he „carefully cleaned” the trunk of his car, according to Papathanassiou.”Following the criminal proceedings, the perpetrator has been led to the District Prosecutor’s Office, while awaiting the results of the forensic, clinical and toxicological results of the examinations,” Papathanassiou said in a statement Tuesday.(MORE: Crucial piece of evidence may identify killer of American professor murdered in Greece, police source says)Papathanassiou told ABC News that the suspect is from the town of Kissamos, about 20 miles from the port city of Chania where Eaton was staying on Crete. The suspect, whose father is a priest, lives with his wife and two small children in the village of Maleme, some 10 miles from Chania, according to Papathanassiou.The man was arrested just days after police obtained DNA evidence from nearly a dozen people who live nearby.Eaton, a 59-year-old molecular biologist and mother of two, was attending a scientific conference held at the Orthodox Academy of Crete in northwest Crete when she vanished on July 2. It was that afternoon that Eaton went back to her hostel room after lunch, changed into athletic attire and went out for her daily walk, leaving behind her mobile phone and other personal belongings, police said. She never returned.An organizer of the conference reported Eaton missing to local police on July 4, when she was expected to present findings from her research. Greek authorities, joined by volunteers and Eaton’s loved ones, launched a large-scale search for her in the area, using dogs and helicopters. Her body was found on July 8 in the cave-like bunker, built by Nazis after they occupied Crete in 1941. Her cause of death was ruled a murder by asphyxiation, police said.An autopsy determined that Eaton died at noon on July 2. Her body showed signs of „a violent criminal act and possibly sexual abuse,” Lagoudakis said in his statement Tuesday. She had many broken ribs and face bones as well as multiple injuries to both hands, according to Papathanassiou’s statement.(MORE: American scientist murdered in Crete fought for her life, police say)A police source told ABC News that Eaton fought for her life when she was attacked by someone with a knife. Her body had substantial injuries from a blade that was „defensive” in nature, the source said.Greek state coroner Antonis Papadomanolakis, who examined the body, told Greece’s ANT1 News that „something complicated happened” during Eaton’s death, stating that it was „not immediate” and „there was duration involved.”Investigators searched for men with muscular builds and the ability to overpower Eaton, who was an avid runner and had a black belt in Tae Kwon Do. They also requested data records from local mobile phone companies in hopes that they may identify the person or people who left Eaton’s body in the bunker, according to police sources.

Paris (AFP) – French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday called on Tehran to explain why a Franco-Iranian academic based at a Paris university has been arrested in Iran, expressing concern for the woman’s welfare.

The detention of Fariba Adelkhah, a well-known expert on Iran and Shiite Islam at the prestigious Sciences Po university, risks increasing tension between Paris and Tehran at a critical moment in crisis talks to save the beleagured Iranian nuclear programme.

Adelkhah has been denied contact with consular staff, the French foreign ministry said Monday, confirming her dual nationality.

„France calls on the Iranian authorities to shed full light on Mrs Adelkhah’s situation and repeats its demands, particularly with regard to an immediate authorisation for consular access,” the ministry said in a statement.

„What has happened worries me a great deal,” Macron told reporters at a news conference in Belgrade, where he is visiting. „We have been aware of this for some days.

„I have expressed my disagreement and asked President (Hassan) Rohani for clarification,” he added. But he added that France had so far received no meaningful explanation.

Iranian government spokesman Ali Rabiei said he could not confirm the charges.

Adelkhah, 60, is the latest Iranian national with a Western passport to be arrested in Iran.

British-Iranian Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a project manager with the Thomson Reuters Foundation, has been jailed in Tehran since 2016 on sedition charges, a detention that has caused major tensions with Britain.

– ‘Totally unacceptable’ –

Adelkhah’s arrest comes just as Macron is seeking to lead European efforts to find a way of keeping the 2015 nuclear deal alive, which limits Iran’s atomic programme.

Macron has sent an envoy to Tehran twice in the last month and was even rumoured to be considering becoming the first French president in more than 40 years to travel to the Iranian capital.

The landmark deal is at risk of collapsing after US President Donald Trump pulled Washington out unilaterally, leading Iran to violate safeguards that limited its stockpiling and enrichment of uranium.

Jean-Francois Bayart, a French academic and friend of Adelkhah’s, said he and colleagues had alerted French authorities when the anthropologist did not return home from a trip to her homeland as scheduled on June 25.

He said he thought she had been arrested on June 5 and was being held at the Evin prison in Tehran.

„She has been visited by her family. She hasn’t been mistreated, but I’m worried about her because she isn’t physically strong,” Bayart told AFP. „We don’t know how long this totally unacceptable detention is going to last.”

„Iran doesn’t recognise dual nationality, so for them she is Iranian, which is why consular access has not been permitted,” he added. „But talks have taken place at the highest levels between the countries.”

Other Iranian dual nationals jailed in Iran include Iranian-American Siamak Namazi and his father Baquer, who are serving 10-year sentences for espionage in a case that has outraged Washington.

Chinese-American Xiyue Wang, a Princeton University researcher, is serving a 10-year sentence for espionage and US national Michael White, 46, was this year also sentenced to 10 years.

French academic Clotilde Reiss was detained in Iran for 10 months in 2009-10 before being released in a case that attracted widespread attention at the time.

At around the same time as her release, French judicial authorities freed Ali Vakili Rad, who had been convicted of the 1991 murder outside Paris of the ousted shah’s former prime minister Shapour Bakhtiar.

The timing led to speculation about a bilateral deal over the prisoners, though French authorities denied any exchange.

For several months in 2007, Iran detained US-Iranian academic Haleh Esfandiari, one of the most prominent US-based academics working on Iran, who at the time was director of the Middle East programme at the Wilson Center.